By Mark Shields, co-host of the PBS NewsHour and formerly of Inside Washington and CNN’s Capital Gang.

On the consensus list of the most significant American presidents following George Washington, there is a common trait. Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson and Harry Truman -- each of these great leaders was first a very good politician who actually enjoyed politics.

We applaud West Las Vegas Schools for making some apparent improvements in a pair of fall-sport high school programs: football and girls soccer. With football, the evidence is in not only in how well the Dons fared against their longtime crosstown measuring tape, the Robertson Cardinals, staying in a competitive game for three quarters, but in its success throughout the season.